Ball State gives all-clear for campus, lockdown is lifted

BSU: All events will take place as scheduled

Ball State University has issued an all-clear after police searched several campus buildings following reports that an armed person might be on the central Indiana campus.

WRTV

Ball State University went on lockdown in November 2013 after reports surfaced of a gunman on campus. Police investigation has been put on hold until new information is found, the university said.

Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Twitter

Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

MUNCIE, Ind. - Ball State University has issued an all-clear after police searched several campus buildings following reports that an armed person might be on the central Indiana campus.

The university sent an all-clear notice about 7:50 p.m. EST Friday, some three hours after issuing an alert reporting a "possible armed assailant" near the Muncie campus' Student Recreation and Wellness Center. The all-clear notice said the campus was secure.

Ball State spokesman Tony Proudfoot says multiple witnesses had reported hearing someone repeatedly shout "gun!" on the Recreation and Wellness Building's third-floor running track. But he said no weapon was found on the campus.

The campus was partially locked down as police and state troopers swept through the recreation building and four adjoining buildings.

"We have no evidence of a gun or a gunman," Proudfoot said. "However, we want to make sure people are safe so we have secured the building. University police are going through the rooms in the building to make sure it's safe. We're asking people in the building to stay in a room and secure themselves."

Proudfoot said only four buildings on the 700-acre campus that contains 100 buildings were affected by the security alert as campus police, Muncie police and Indiana State Police troopers conducted sweeps through those buildings.

A student said the buildings are connected like a maze, so it would potentially take a long time to make sure every room and building was safe.

Ball State students on Twitter were tweeting photos of campus police with rifles securing the recreation building, and police cars blocking off roads in the area.

RTV6 was not among those media outlets reporting about an alleged hostage situation, which Proudfoot said was "not at all accurate."

Proudfoot said the university has a number of means of alerting students about an emergency situation on campus, including 200 digital signs in the health and recreation facility alone. The school also has a subscription-based text message alert system. Proudfoot said roughly two-thirds of the campus' 20,000 students are subscribed to that service.

Proudfoot said there was no delay in the university sending out its initial emergency alert on the situation, but some students disagreed via social media.

Students were quick to take to Twitter to criticize a perceived delay by the university in sending out an alert on the incident: